05 August 2017 - Current Affairs

Venkaiah Naidu Is New Vice President of India 

  • Venkaiah Naidu is going to succeed Hamid Ansari as the new Vice-President of India. Naidu’s victory was a foregone conclusion, the NDA candidate having the support of a majority of MPs who ally with the BJP.
  • The Election Commission said that 771 votes were polled, of which 760 were valid and 11 were valid. Venkaiah Naidu secured 516 and Gopalkrishna Gandhi 241 votes. 
  • This means, that Venkaiha Naidu will become the 13th Vice President of India.


Neymar becomes World's most expensive footballer


  • Brazil's Neymar (25-year) has become the world's most expensive footballer, with Paris Saint-Germain signing him for a five-year deal from Barcelona for a fee of Rs. 1,680 crores (€222 million).
  • Neymar scored 105 goals in 186 Barcelona appearances, will earn Rs. 6.5 crore-a-week before tax.
  • His transfer fee is more than double that of Paul Pogba's record move to Manchester United.
  • Earlier, Paul Pogba (Manchester United) was the most expensive player.


Akshay Kumar appointed brand ambassador for Swachh Bharat Mission in UP


  • Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister ‘Yogi Adityanath’ has announced Bollywood superstar ‘Akshay Kumar’ as the brand ambassador of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the state.
  • The chief minister also announced to make his upcoming movie ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ tax-free in the state.
  • The movie stresses the importance of building toilets and ending open defecation in the country.
  • Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a campaign by the Government of India to clean the streets, roads, and infrastructure of the country's 4,041 statutory cities and towns.
  • It includes ambassadors and activities such as run, national real-time monitoring or spread of updated NGOs practices.
  • The campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



Veteran actor Sharada has been selected for the prestigious Prem Nazir award.


  • A three-time National Award Winner Veteran actress ‘Sharada’ has been selected for this year's Prem Nazir Award.
  • The award, carrying a purse of Rs 75,000, a statuette and a citation.
  • The award will be presented to Sharada at a function at Chirayankeezhu (Kerala) on 15th August.
  • Sharada won the Best Actress award for her performance in 1968 for Thulabharam (Malayalam), in 1972 for Swayamvaram (Malayalam) and five years later for Nimajjanam (Telugu).
  • ‘Prem Nazir’ Award was instituted in memory of Kerala’s evergreen actor Prem Nazir by people of Chirayankeezhu (Kerala).
  • She has been bestowed with several prestigious awards such as the Kerala State Film Awards, Filmfare Awards South, and Nandi Award.


Maharashtra Govt. launches online portals MahaDBT, MahaVASTU


  • Maharashtra Govt. has launched two online portals 'MahaDBT & MahaVASTU' to streamline the process of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
  • The portals were launched with an aim to bring in more transparency in the construction sector and to provide direct benefits with 'Aadhaar' authentication.
  • MahaDBT portal is an Aadhaar-authenticated electronic mechanism that will enable direct transfer of benefits for over 40 schemes and DBT scheme, Aadhaar will be mandatory to claim benefits through this portal.
  • MahaVASTU portal is an Online Building Permission Management System with an electronic workflow for sanctioning building approvals with full transparency.


India signs USD 329 million loan pact with AIIB for Gujarat road project


  • India has signed a loan agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for the financing of 329 million US dollar for Gujarat Rural Roads Project.
  • The agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare (Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance) and Vice President & Chief Investment Officer, AIIB, D J Pandian.
  • The objective of the project is to improve the rural road connectivity and accessibility to more than one thousand villages in all the 33 districts of the state benefiting about 80 lakh people.
  • The project will also benefit the service providers such as public transport operators, educational institutions, hospitals, local markets, and traders.


Assam govt all set to distribute 13 lakh Soil Health Cards among farmers


  • Assam government is all set to distribute 13 lakh Soil Health Cards among farmers.
  • According to the state Agriculture minister Atul Bora, 1 lakh 41 thousand cards have been distributed from April 2016 to June this year.
  • 214 soil test kits are operational for this purpose.


Govt. to develop green airports in Andhra Pradesh


  • India’s initiative to develop green airports, two airports (Tirupati and Vijayawada) in Andhra Pradesh are going to go completely green.
  • Airports Authority of India (AAI) has commenced installation of 1MWp solar power plant at both the airports.
  • It has also completed installation of solar power plants at 29 airports/locations with a total capacity of 12.84 MWp.


Delhi Police ties up with Uber for women safety


  • Uber has collaborated with Delhi Police's women safety app 'Himmat' for ensuring better safety to women across the city.
  • Passengers can now access the Delhi Police's women safety mobile application 'Himmat' via cab aggregator Uber's application while traveling in taxis.
  • In addition to the emergency button in the Uber app, riders will now have one more touch point to access the police helpline in case of an emergency.
  • Currently, ‘Himmat application’ has over 31,000 registered users.


The US submits official withdrawal from Paris climate pact


  • The United States has officially informed the United Nations (UN) that it will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.
  • According to the US state department, Washington intends to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement but would continue to participate in UN climate change meetings during the withdrawal process.
  • In June 2017, President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal.
  • Earlier, Former US President Barack Obama had pledged as part of the Paris accord to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28% from 2005 levels by 2025 to help slow global warming.


Forex reserves surge to record 392.867 bn


  • India's foreign exchange reserves have surged by 1.536 billion US Dollars to touch a fresh lifetime high of 392.867 billion dollars in the last week of July 2017.
  • According to the RBI release, a major part of the overall reserves rose by 1.609 billion dollars to 368.759 billion dollars.
  • India's special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund went up by 3.9 million dollars to 1.495 billion dollars.
  • The country's reserve position declined by 77.2 million dollars to 2.263 billion dollars.
  • Gold reserves remained unchanged at 20.35 billion dollars.
  • Foreign exchange reserves are reserve assets held by a central bank in foreign currencies, used to back liabilities on their own issued currency as well as to influence monetary policy.

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